the state of gujurati muslims

[al Furqaan]

First, you want to prove that it was possible for a Muslim to become a President, it was because he was "non-practicing" kind. When someone shows you the example to the contrary, instead of accepting and withdrawing that part of your comment, you throw a new gauntlet "Oh, But President is for the namesake only and not an executive head".

thats true. i threw the gauntlet. however, that in no way shape or form negates the veracity of said gauntlet.

When someone gives you the example of CMs, who are the executive head of the state the same way as PM is for the country, you carefully ignore/avoid it. And we have had both Muslim and Christian CMs (mind you, Christians are less than 5%). And CMs are the executive heads of the state - atleast you can't accuse them of being "token" posts, "token" presence etc.

it is a token post. if there are 10 people in a room and one of them is treated well representatively, its a token gesture. of course i don't expect that most or all minorities get polictical posts; thats ridiculous. but i do expect them not to be butchered in communal riots. having a muslim CM in some far away state means nothing to a person killed in say gujurat.

All Indians (Media included) know that for all practical purpose, the current executive powers are all vested in Sonia Gandhi (and people had voted her party to power, despite her national and religious background). If she couldn't become a PM, it is because of her origins and her reluctance to surrender her Italian Passport for quite a many year, and the constitutional difficulties at letting a foreigner become the PM of a country.

But then, for all her religious credentials, Sonia did get people's votes and was a PM candidate bar her eligibility. That couldn't satisfy you either.

valid points. and i will concede that you are right here.

You want to push on how you have few Hindu leaders in AL, well, guess what, we have MANY muslims leaders in Congress, Janata Dal, Samajwadi Party and fractionwise, and at all level, and far exceed your "token presence" critera by any barometer that you may have. They will outweigh whatever number of elected Hindu MPs you have in your country proportionately or otherwise - we both know. A few Hindu leaders in AL don't compare to our Minority CMs or Presidents - they only compare to a few muslim leaders in our major political parties and even that leaves MANY muslim leaders without their corresponding equivalence. So please spare me the BD example.

If we have a Muslim leader who displays capabilities needed to get himself elected as the PM of the country, he will. Even if he displays 3/4th the capability of a corresponding Hindu leader, he will still win cos that is how our politics is. Not that it matters but Priyanka Gandhi, Sonia's daughter and already married to a christian is already the next PM in line, if Congress can win again.

thats true. however, i doubt what few hindu leaders we have in BD would get gassed and torched during a riot - of which we have far fewer than India or Pakistan.

indian muslims are far ahead of minorities in BD/PAK on many key criteria, however that doesn't negate the fact that some or many of their lives are resting in a precarious balance. this is doubly true of pakistan, but simply not true of bangladesh.

if the choice came between having a token muslim leader in the society in which i lived or the saftey and well being of me and my family, I would probably choose the latter.